How Much Does a 2 Minute Video Cost?

One of the first questions people ask us is “How much does a video cost?” As much as I want to avoid the answer, “It depends”, it really does depend in the case of a video production. Watch the end credits of any blockbuster movie. A 2-hour feature costs millions of dollars, and every name you see rolling to the top of that screen was paid a day rate or a fee for working on that film. First of all, you can’t price a video based on length. A 30-second commercial can cost millions compared to the 10 minute long how-to videos you can find on YouTube. Secondly, it’s very hard to answer this question without a little more digging on our end. When we ask questions, we’re not trying to get the highest budget possible for the video, but we do want to make a video that makes sense for what you need.

So how do you know how much it will cost to make a video? They can cost anywhere from $500 to $500,000. Why the big difference? It all depends on the concept. The cost of a video comes down to this:

What is your concept?

Do you want us to interview your CEO about your company’s latest doodad, and do we need to edit in cool footage showing off how awesome your company is? Or do we need to hire an actor to recreate a day in the life of a typical customer in order to tell the story about how the thingamajig can save people time and money? Both ideas can work for various reasons, but both ideas come with very different price tags.

 

How do you decide on what concept to choose? It all depends on your audience. Let’s start with corporate videos. If the video is for customers or employees who have low to no visibility to the CEO of your company, then we recommend the first approach – what we like to call a “talking head video”. This allows for them to hear his or her voice and interpret their body language. Plus, it shows the importance of the message if distributed in a video format. Anyone can shoot off an email, but taking the time to record a video shows that you care about getting the right message across. But if you want to post this video to your social media networks where the audience is people like you and me, then a story about how someone can benefit from using the product will resonate much more than watching a person they don’t know talking in front of a camera for 3 minutes.

If you are unsure of what concept works best for you and your audience, then we can help you come up with a concept that is right for you. We usually provide 2-3 concepts with varying costs so you can choose the one that fits your timeline and budget.

There are 3 other things to keep in mind when requesting a quote for a video:

Do you want it fast, cheap, or good? Pick 2. I believe all creative agencies strive to do all 3, but there’s always a compromise somewhere. If you need a good video “Now. Now. Now!”, then we can put more resources toward getting the video done for you in that timeframe, but it won’t be cheap. Working with a restricted timeline increases the budget because we may need to send multiple crews to different locations at the same time or book twice as many editors and graphic design folks in order to get the video done faster for you. With more time, we can work with you to identify ways to keep the costs down and the quality up.

Let’s say you don’t have a large budget for the video and you want it fast. Then we can’t guarantee that it will be as good as it could be, but you’ll definitely have something you can tweet to all of your friends! The question is, “Will you want to and will it have the desired effect that you want?” We can work with any budget, and if you give us time, we can figure out the best way to make it happen at a lower cost and with a higher value to you and your network.

I think you get the picture. With more time and budget, we’re bound to make a video that we can all be proud of. I’ll tweet to that!

One thing to do right away if you’re not sure what type of video you want or if you even need a video:

Call us. We’re good people, and we’re here to help. We’re not going to up-sell you or try and nickel and dime you. We want to amplify your message beyond the typical video. We want to extend your reach farther than YouTube. Let us tell your story. It may not even be in the form of a video. If you’re in the business of making videos yourself and you want to share war stories, then reach out to us. We’re always looking to expand our network. If you need us to rent 10 blimps of various sizes with your logo on it, then PLEASE CALL US. We’d be all over that.

We hope to hear from you soon, and when you call, get ready to “Be Moved.”

A blog about pricing by Charlyn Villegas, Co-Founder, Producer, Writer/Director @ FWC